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Colorado is at the forefront of America鈥檚 aerospace industry. This month, representatives from LASP and other university affiliates attended the 37th annual Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, joining thousands of participants from the civil, commercial and national security sectors.

R.C. 鈥淢erc鈥� Mercure Jr., a CU Boulder alumnus and entrepreneur who helped launch Boulder into the pantheon of aerospace science and engineering, died on Feb. 10, in Boulder. In 1956 he and others founded Ball Brothers Research Corp., now Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp.

Under current cosmological theory, six galaxies spotted by an international team of astrophysicists shouldn't be possible. "You just don鈥檛 expect the early universe to be able to organize itself that quickly," said Erica Nelson, co-author of the new research and assistant professor of astrophysics at CU Boulder.

As part of the NASA Advisory Council, Waleed Abdalati, director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at CU Boulder, will assist in providing advice and making recommendations about important agency programs and topics.

鈥淭hese sorts of missions are an opportunity for students to get involved with a launch and the excitement that goes into it ... [fostering] an interest in space that will last a lifetime,鈥� said Jerry Jason, director of mission operations and data systems at LASP.

Meredith MacGregor, assistant professor in the Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy (CASA) at CU Boulder, spoke about the science of James Webb in a new Fiske Planetarium event series sponsored by Colorado-based Ball Aerospace, which designed and built the telescope鈥檚 unfolding mirror.

Built by LASP at CU Boulder, the CubeSats will provide first-of-their-kind measurements of gravity waves in Earth鈥檚 upper atmosphere and explosions in the Sun鈥檚 corona, filling data gaps that will allow scientists to better predict the effects of space weather on critical human infrastructure and technologies.

On December 8, students and professionals from LASP assumed control of NASA鈥檚 Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) mission just after it lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida鈥攖he culmination of years of preparation, including thousands of hours of training and all-night rehearsals.

Drawing on electromagnetic and optical observations from Parker Solar Probe, a team led by LASP researcher and CU Boulder professor David Malaspina has produced the most complete picture yet of how hypervelocity dust impacts may damage a spacecraft and disturb its operations.

The Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment (CUTE) is slated to launch into space Sept. 27. The approximately $4 million spacecraft, a smaller-than-usual type of satellite known as a 鈥淐ubeSat,鈥� is about as large as a 鈥渇amily-sized box of Cheerios,鈥� said LASP researcher Kevin France.